On Reallusion and iClone5:
A Conversation with John Martin II & Gabe Achanzar

Ricky Grove Interviews John Martin II & Gabe
Achanzar

John Martin II, Ricky Grove and Gabe Achanzar at SIGGRAPH
2011

In my review of the superb new release of Reallusion's iClone5 last week, you may have
noticed several quotations from John Martin II and Gabe Achanzar
(Anima Technica). They were part of a longer conversation I had
with both of them as part of my research for the review. John
Martin II is the longtime VP of Marketing for Reallusion and Gabe
is a power user of iClone, having used the program to create over a
dozen machinima films.

I've know both of these fine fellows for several years now,
having supped with them at the SIGGRAPH conference and even
collaborated with them on machinima projects. And since we are all
good friends, I wanted to get their impression of the newest
version of iClone and perhaps get some background on its
development and the growing community of users. Their comments were
interesting and provide background information on Reallusion and
iClone5 that I couldn't include in the review.

My thanks to John and Gabe for taking the time to answer my
questions and for their insight into the breakthrough release of
iClone5 and the company who produced it.

Ricky: What's your overall impression of the new release
of iClone5?

Gabe Achanzar: I love it! it really expands
what I could do as a low budget filmmaker - not only does it make
me more efficient, it actually improves the look of the renders as
well. The physics alone shaved hours of time and honestly, outside
of making movies, I have a lot of fun playing with the physics.

Ricky: And, John, what were the goals in developing IC5?
What did you achieve/not achieve?

John Martin II: iClone5's focus was to bring
better motion creation and editing to users. We have the digital
actors in iClone5 that are now able to move and animate in an
assortment of methods. Motion capture in iClone has been a dream
for quite some time, but the high-cost of camera hardware made it
only a tool for big budget projects and well staffed studios. The
introduction of Kinect from Microsoft changed the game,
immensely.

Ricky: How much of the development was planned and how
much was based on user requests?

John Martin II: iClone5 has had a focused
roadmap on motion and physics, with much consideration from our
user community. Our first demo of Autodesk's HumanIK was arranged by a power user that
wanted to see it implemented. That is one of the greatest features
of iClone5, HumanIK... because we listen. Some users are very
direct with their requests and talk via Skype. The Reallusion forum
is where the official documentation of wishful features is hosted.
Here is the request bible that the engineers actually look toward
for user input. If you have a request or want to voice a new idea,
the Wishful Features forum is the place to share.

Gabe Achanzar, super-hero filmmaker!

Ricky: It seems the new iClone 5 is focused on animation
(among other developments). Do you think the updates to animation
and motion capture are done well? The Human IK and real-time puppet
manipulation seems to save a lot of time over the key-to-key
approach. Have you found this to be true as well?

Gabe Achanzar: Definitely - iClone, through its
evolution, has focused its version upgrades around a certain theme
- iClone 2 brought with it character costume creation with clone
cloth, iClone 3 improved its prop creation, and, if I recall
correctly, also was the time-frame when 3D exchange came about so
it helped improved the development of movie sets and props for
iClone users. With iClone 4, they introduced more lighting options
as well as atmospheric options to help enhance the visual impact.
With iClone 5, they definitely focused on improving the animation.
Features such as prop puppetry and motion puppetry really do help
the process of creating believable motion. The Mix Motion feature
allows you to blend motion files together, and it does so with very
smooth transitions. Now, a lot of attention was placed on its
ability to do mocap with Kinect. The concept is indeed intriguing
because it brings what used to be the purview of big studios down
to the hobbyist. Having said that, the current implementation is a
good start. Not the ideal solution yet, but certainly enough to get
one going - but, knowing Reallusion's track record, I have no
doubts it will continue to improve.

Ricky: Have you used the iCloneXchange 4 much? With
success?

Gabe Achanzar: yes it is actually a big part of
my tool box - the number of props/sets you can bring into iClone
via 3DXchange is a huge help. However, I end up
re-texturing a lot of the props I import using 3DXchange, and often
this is a very tedious process and there might be a lot of
individual parts you have to change. In my movies, I've used a lot
of buildings that serve as backdrops - for closeups, I usually just
recreate a part of it and apply a high-res texture.

Ricky: What kind of person do you think buys a program
like iClone? Have they expanded their market base?

Gabe Achanzar: I believe it is primarily the
hobbyist, like myself, who is curious about 3D and want an easy way
to get there. As iClone takes on more and more features, the
learning curve goes up a notch or two, so it is a delicate balance
for Reallusion to keep their focus on thier market. In the
Reallusion forums, there have been high-end users clamoring for
iClone to have even more features, but Reallusion knows their
market they address.

Ricky: John, has the user base of iClone
changed?

John Martin II: The iClone user base has always
been changing from the beginning until now. The constant is that
all that have entered have had a desire to create 3D animated
films, yet as while iClone has matured from version 1 to version 5,
there has emerged a toolset that enables professionals too. The
iClone user is not so easy to define in terms of what they do...
some are certainly production, film and TV professionals, like Vic
Fina at the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or Jesse Griffith of
Jimmy Kimmel Live, but some are also insurance salesmen, teachers,
students and creative minds with all sorts of day jobs. iClone is
still a tool with the threshold to welcome newcomers to animation,
while offering a complete toolset for professional to get down to
business.

John Martin demos iClone at SIGGRAPH

Ricky: Gabe, you've directed over a dozen machinima
films. Some of them are quite long. What is iClone like to use on a
large production? Do you find it to be stable? Does more ram or cpu
speed make a difference?

Gabe Achanzar: My biggest product so far is
The Nobbit, having just completed part 3, it spans about
90 minutes altogether. Part was, I thought, going to be difficult
to make because there were a number of scenes I thought might be
too complex to pull off, like the Dragon's attack on Laketown and
the final battle scene. To my delight, iClone turned out to be more
than capable in pulling these scenes off. The other great thing
about iClone, from a production perspective, is how it lends itself
to fast movie making. We recently participated in the 48HR Film Project
and had a relatively tough genre to do - with iClone, we managed to
finish 5 hours before the deadline and walked away with Best
Direction, Acting, Sound Design, and almost got the Best Picture :)
Again, it shows how not only flexible iClone can be, but how
efficient a tool it is.

John Martin II: iClone is also a real-time
compositing tool for video and 3D. Much of what you can do with
Nuke is possible with iClone, in real-time. Add iClone's core for
character creation and you have a 3D, video, digital actor studio.
Green screen or blue screen video can have backgrounds removed in
one-click. Then, export the transparent video to iClone for scene
creation and compositing.

Ricky: Where is iClone heading in terms of its appeal
and development?

John Martin II: iClone continues to develop
with real-time innovation in mind. The ability to more easily
import and animate content from every library or tool is a goal.
iClone is a virtual toy box of unlimited content to match our
community's imaginations.

Ricky: What do you think of the growing marketplace for
iClone related items, Gabe? Use it much?

Gabe Achanzar: The marketplace for iClone has
grown tremendously, and many talented developers have come on
board. So, really, it has been great for the iClone user. I
remember back in the days of iClone 1 and 2, to make a movie you
had to create everything. These days you can buy almost any item in
any genre off the marketplace. I've purchased a lot of items over
the years for use in my projects. I've always tended to want to
create everything myself, from costumes to sets, but these days,
with time becoming tight, it is much easier to buy them off. I also
sell a few of my costume and set designs through Alley's and
AfterThought's store, and what money/credit I get is used to buy
other people's creations, so it is sorta self-sufficient that
way.

Ricky: How does one become an iClone developer? Has
there been an increase in developers for the program.

John Martin II: The marketplace is a great way
to make money with your original 3D content. Developers need to
have a license of iClone PRO and register it on our website. Then,
go to developer.reallusion.com to access all the white
papers and template downloads. If you are curious about the
developer program, visit the site link mentioned for more info.

Poster for Gabe Achanzar's The Nobbit

Ricky: Lastly, why do you choose iClone over other
applications? How does it enable you to achieve what you
imagine?

Gabe Achanzar: I actually used RayDream,
TrueSpace and Poser before I got into iClone - over a period of a
couple of years using these tools, I find myself maknig a lot of
test videos, but never a complete movie. They were just so time
consuming. Once I discovered iClone - I went off and made a movie,
uploaded to YouTube within 3 hours of buying it. I find it very
very flexible in addressing many different genres - I've done
samurai movies, 18th century British India, Steampunk theme, Star
Wars, and, of course, Middle Earth with it. I even made a movie
about God and the afterlife with it. Really, with this tool your
imagination is the limit.

It is hard to imagine how much iClone has evolved since version
1. Back then there were no third party developers, there was no
3DXchange, no 3D blocks, so really you had a very basic tool. Early
users like Warlord, Shygirl, myself, along with a number of other
early iClone users were undeterred, determined to make it work and
pooled our resources to create and share with the community. And
Reallusion lent its support to the community, helping foster it,
and we had faith that Reallusion will continue to improve this
product we loved. Many of the members of the early days are still
with us and I am sure, like me, truly appreciate the amount of
progress in the software. All along, Reallusion kept in contact,
asking for feedback, and lo and behold, the next version
implemented some of that feedback.

Notes

You can read Gabe's blog here and discover his films at his Vimeo filmsite.
And, I'm proud to tell you that two of Gabe's films are being
screened at the Machinima Expo in November.

Ricky
Grove [gToon], Staff Columnist with the Renderosity Front
Page News. Ricky Grove is a bookstore clerk at the best bookstore
in Los Angeles, the Iliad Bookshop. He's also an actor and
machinima filmmaker. He lives with author, Lisa Morton, and three
very individual cats. Ricky is into Hong Kong films, FPS shooters,
experimental anything and reading, reading, reading. You can catch
his blog here.

October 31, 2011

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